Police Training

Eye tracking glasses aide police in accuracy and making-split second decisions before shooting

Police officers usually only have a fraction of a second before determining whether their target is brandishing a weapon and whether to pull the trigger. With the help of eye tracking glasses, research by University of Calgary kinesiology professor Joan Vickers and Minnesota police psychology expert Bill Lewinski shows how split-second decision-making by police officers is aided by the "Quiet Eye" gaze-focusing technique. "Officers with 'Quiet Eye' training had more accurate shots and were better able to identify whether a weapon was merely a cell phone," says Dr. Vickers, who pioneered "Quiet Eye" training and introduced it to sports, medicine and law enforcement. In her work, Dr. Vickers has found that elite athletes (such as Olympian shooters) and police officers fix their sites on a target and do not re-focus on their weapons.